In
addressing a meeting of the AIH in Washington DC on 21 June 2000 [1],
George Vithoulkas said that in his view allopathic medicine was
"destroying the American people" [2]. This comment stood out
to me as very important, and I wanted to discuss it with him. The
following day [22 June 2000] I meant to ask him some questions publicly
after his second address [9am-10am], but he left the stage too quickly
for me to act. I caught up with him right outside the hall and we spoke
for about ten minutes. I later presented to him an account of our
discussion by email. He did not like some of the content, but agreed to
answer a set of questions on the same subject, as an interview, which
would be suitable for publication.

Before getting to the interview, let's review some of Vithoulkas's
published comments pertaining to his contention that allopathic medicine
is adversely affecting western civilisation's overall health.

"Classical homeopathy is the most powerful healing technique
existing in the world." [3]

"I see the health of people in general so degraded, with no hope
of regeneration. And homeopathy holds the hope of regeneration."
[4]

"...with the massive way antibiotics are being prescribed they
are going to destroy the immune system. It is going to be open to new
diseases, that are going to be incurable. AIDS is a disease which we
have created." [5]

"It's grotesque, but it's a fact...what you would see in this
society would be terrible shouting, fighting, aggression, moodiness,
fits...panic...but then you would see the real picture of what the state
of health is! Never mind the statistics that say we are living longer.
Look at the heart diseases, cancer, the chronic diseases, and now AIDS.
We are facing a problem here..." [6]

"I claim that diseases of the human race have never been tackled
properly by conventional medicine; on the contrary, they have been
treated wrongly - suppressively - and therefore while the symptoms were
masked, the real disorder underneath progressed and finally was pushed
to the interior of the organism, which is the central and peripheral
nervous system.

"Let me give you just a few facts to judge for yourself:
Multiple sclerosis, a disease that eventually leaves its victims totally
paralyzed, is one which thousands of people are suffering from in the
western world. Yet it is entirely unknown to Africans, Asians or South
Americans, who have not had the 'benefit' of the excellence of western
medicine. Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a terrible disorder of the
neuromuscular system, is also unknown to all these people. Myopathy and
muscular dystrophy is the same, known only to westerners. Epilepsy,
which is rampant in the western world, is seldom encountered in these
countries.

"Anxiety neurosis, compulsive neurosis, and in general mental
disorders of a severe nature from which millions of patients are
suffering in the western world, are almost unknown in these groups that
have not had the 'benefit' of modern medicine and vaccinations. Chorea
and a host of other nervous system disorders are also unknown to them.

"The model suggests that all these chronic diseases, including
hay fever, asthma, cancer and AIDS, are the result of wrong intervention
upon the organisms by conventional medicine. It claims that the immune
systems of the western population, through strong chemical drugs and
repeated vaccinations, have broken down and finally admitted the
diseases deeper and deeper into the human organism, to the central and
peripheral nervous system.

"In short, this model claims that conventional medicine, instead
of curing diseases, is actually the cause of the degeneration of the
human race. It is also very simple for anyone to think that if
conventional medicine were really curing chronic diseases, today we
would have a population in the west that was healthy, mentally,
emotionally and physically.

"Due to this model, I had already, in 1970, predicted the
appearance of AIDS, saying to a group of medical doctors in Athens that
if conventional medicine continued to use antibiotics the way it did,
there would come a time when the immune system would break down and new
incurable diseases would emerge. It was an unfortunate but precise and
timely prediction of the appearance of AIDS.

"Today, I want to make another prediction. If conventional
medicine does not take notice of what we say and drastically change its
practices and its logic in treating with chemical drugs; if it does not
also change the direction of its research, soon diseases will go to the
very center of the organism, which is the nervous system, and most of
the population on earth will be mentally ill individuals." [7]

The Questions

Here below are given the original
questions I subsequently sent him and his complete answers:
1. Why did you say that the American people are being destroyed by
allopathy? Not just why you believe this, but why you chose to say it?

2. Do you accept the responsibility
that comes with the impact of what you say? This applies to any leader
of any movement and the public remarks they make. Should you not be more
cognizant of the possible misinterpretation of your public words? It
seems to me that the social impact of the statements you make are
perhaps more important than the claims you make. Unless you can supply
good evidence for your statements and predictions, is there any point in
bringing them to the public's attention?

3. You have not said these things
"just to homeopathic converts," as you previously claimed to
me, but also to Swedish Parliament in 1996. Do you not think that such
public remarks could be misinterpreted?

4. Does not your desire to say this
about allopathy outweigh your social responsibility for saying it? In
other words, does not your desire to say point 1 above [to get the
message across dramatically] outweigh your awareness of points 2 and 3?

5. Do you really believe that the true
significance of what you say can be grasped fully by allopaths and
non-homeopaths? If not, then why keep saying it?

6. In many of the things you say -
such as in the 2000 Links article - and your response to the reactions,
you appear alone, isolated, dogmatic and arrogantly dismissive of all
other homeopaths; you appear entirely dominated by insisting on the
rightness of your own opinions and strongly dismissive of other
people's. Are you aware of making this impression? In addition, does it
not bother you? Does it not damage homeopathy?

7. I do personally agree with you on
this matter of disease, but all beliefs and predictions are inevitably
based upon a field of certain assumptions, experiences and
probabilities. As allopaths do not have or share this field of
assumptions, beliefs and experiences, so it is difficult to see how they
can ever fully or clearly comprehend your predictions and statements;
therefore, they seem likely to reject them out of hand. How do you think
this can be remedied?

8. Do you not believe that a much more
rigorous and scientific approach is required and might be undertaken,
first by yourself and other homeopaths, to accumulate actual data in
support of your opinions, as a good first step, before you make
statements like this again?

Vithoulkas's Reply

George Vithoulkas faxed his reply on
July 20, 2000.

"I will try to answer your
questions as best as possible. I have reduced, as you will see, the
questions to the essentials."

[Morrell's questions are italicized.]

1. Why did you say that American
people are being destroyed by conventional medicine? Not why you
believe, but why you chose to say it?

What I am saying is that the overuse
of chemical prescription drugs is producing such devastating side
effects that rapid changes in the overall health status of the western
population will be apparent within the next few generations (two or
three). We will witness outrageous consequences.

I am not saying this for the American
people only, but for the entire civilized world that is overusing
conventional therapeutics (prescription drugs and vaccinations). The
American people are using such drugs excessively and therefore they will
be the first to manifest lasting health consequences.

It is scary to see the explosion in
the form of epidemics of chronic conditions, like Alzheimer's disease,
diabetes, asthma, neuromuscular diseases such as multiple sclerosis,
connective tissue diseases, allergic conditions, panic attacks, anxiety
states, phobic states, insanity, etc., and all of these predominantly in
the western world while undeveloped countries that do not possess the
means to provide their populace such strong chemical drugs are free from
such diseases. I believe that anyone who has come to this realization
would want to warn those in danger. [2]

2. Do you accept the responsibility
for what you are saying?

Absolutely. This is a warning I have
been voicing for the last 25 years in all my public talks. It seems that
certain nations, like Germany, Russia, the Scandinavian countries, and
Italy, are taking this, and other similar, warnings seriously. In
consequence, they are turning to alternative methods of treatment,
especially to homeopathy, in big numbers. The authorities in these
countries are also taking action.

I wonder what you would have done had
you my experience and conviction of the truth of this assertion? Would
you remain mute and let a race, whether African, Asian or Caucasian, be
devastated? Or would you choose to voice the warning as loudly as
possible, even if it is the last moment, so those who will listen could
be spared?

The American people are a relatively
new society, composed of many races, with much charisma, vitality,
originality, and sincerity; it is a society that is just and fair, and
of great importance to everyone in the world. It is important that the
American people be as healthy as possible and remain so, mentally,
emotionally and physically.

In many departments of life,
scientists have warned us about the many dangers that are threatening
the planet (e.g., ecological crises). Slowly they are managing to make
the world aware of these dangers despite vested interests that resist
change and seek to hamper their efforts. It is my opinion that the
greatest threat » the healthcare crisis » to the survival of the
peoples of the western world, especially Americans, is imminent. I do
not say this because I am an advocate of homeopathy. All those who
really know me, know that I would say the same even if it went against
my personal interests.

3. Do you think that such remarks
could be misinterpreted? Would you accept the responsibility of such
misinterpretation?

Sure, I am afraid that I might be
misinterpreted, but would this fear prevent me, you or anybody from
voicing a warning that might save a large number of people?

Here we are concerned with the health
of the people, a life and death issue. Recently, it was published that
300,000 patients died from prescription drugs in a given time period. If
such numbers are correct, then we have to assume that a very large
number of patients experienced similar, though non-fatal, side-effects
from these drugs.

Many of the cases we try to treat with
homeopathy have their origin in such side-effects. I believe that the
long-range side-effects of the massive drugging of the world affects
millions of people every year and contributes to the degeneration of the
health of the general population on a grand scale.

Since I have seen and realized the
extent of the damage from the overuse of chemical drugs, I have a
responsibility to voice such a warning. I am also willing to discuss
this issue with any health/medical authorities who are interested in
doing so. It is my hope that corrective measures can be adopted to
reverse this disturbing trend.

4. You have not said these things just
to homeopaths but also to the Swedish Parliament in 1996 in your speech
of acceptance of the Alternative Nobel Prize. Do you not think that such
remarks could be interpreted wrongly? Could they be considered as scare
stories? Wouldn't one need more convincing evidence before making such
sweeping statements?

I have been voicing this warning for
thirty years, always in a different way each time according to the
situation. The essence is the same, but I speak in a different way when
I speak to homeopaths than when I speak in a public lecture. I voiced
this warning in the Swedish Parliament when I was awarded the
Alternative Nobel Prize. The essence of my message to the world was that
there is danger for the planet in the way chemical drugs are used and,
at the same time, there is a way out of this danger; there is a
solution. I did not do a sterile criticism only; I also offered a
solution, how to get out of the situation. I voiced the same warning and
the same hope when recently I was awarded the Gold Medal of the
Hungarian Democracy.

I am not alone in proffering this
warning; many other authors before me have spoken openly and in no
uncertain terms about this danger. To mention only a few classics that
come to my mind » Medical Nemesis by Ivan Illich, Pills, Profits and
Politics, There's Gold in Them Thar Pills by Klass, Chronic Disease and
Public Health by Lilienfeld and Gifford, etc. The medical literature is
full of these warnings, and the fact that periodically the medical
establishment recognizes these failings and abandons the previous
"miraculous" medicines confirms my assertion. The reader can
refer to my book A New Model for Health and Disease (North Atlantic
Books, USA; ISBN: 1556430876. April 1992) for more information.

The difference between these authors
and myself is that simultaneously with the warning I proposed a
solution: the acceptance and implementation of Homeopathy on a massive
scale. To prepare such a solution I have worked hard the last forty
years. I have strived to implement this healing system to a level
acceptable to the scientific world. I have educated doctors to produce
respectable results. I have prepared a computer system that will help
them with their diagnosis. I have written several books to explain and
to educate, and I am in the process of writing a new materia medica of
16 volumes (nine volumes have been completed so far). I have held
innumerable seminars in different countries. And lastly, I established a
full school for re-educating the doctors: The International Academy of
Classical Homeopathy. This program is now being taught in several
countries.

5. Do you really believe that the
significance of what you are saying can be fully grasped by conventional
medical people? Can they fully comprehend your predictions and
statements?

I do not only believe that
conventional medicine has started listening; we have the facts that
prove such a change. Already two medical universities in Europe, the
Basque University in Bilbao, Spain and the Kiev Medical Academy in
Ukraine, have given me the status of Professor, in their respective
medical faculties. Several other universities are preparing to include
homeopathy in their curriculum.

I have this year signed a protocol of
collaboration with the Ministry of Health in Moscow, which is planning
to assist in the re-education of Russian medical doctors in the science
of Classical Homeopathy. They seem to be well informed and to care about
the health of their own people more than any other European country. I
can also say that the European Union, after my conversations with the
President of the Parliamentary study group concerned with alternative
therapies and with the Minister of Health, passed, by a substantial
majority of the Parliament, a directive recommending that the various
European governments assist in the promotion of homeopathy.

The Health Ministry in Italy is
proposing a new law to its parliament to insure that Homeopathic
Medicine will be official. I suppose it is not necessary to continue
enumerating the facts that prove this point.
If the medical authorities and the Department of Health in U.S.A.
choose to ignore these matters, it is their problem and their
responsibility. After my warning, perhaps they will not be able to
invoke as their justification the myth that they did not know. But I
believe that the American people are intelligent, progressive and
aggressive enough to initiate their own grass-roots revolution. The fact
that medical visits to alternative therapists in U.S. are almost double
those to conventional medical practitioners proves that the American
people are becoming more and more aware of this situation.

6. Do you believe that a much more
rigorous scientific approach is required and might be undertaken by
yourself and other homeopaths before you make a statement like this?

I agree that more research is required
to find out the real damage done by chemical drugs and the real limits
of homeopathy. That is why when I received the Alternative Nobel Prize,
accompanied by a substantial amount of money, I distributed all of it to
several research centers all over the world. But this money (US$85,000)
is peanuts in comparison with the money that goes to conventional
research, which amounts to billions. Yet everyone in positions of
authority says, "Give us more research." The Commissioner of
Health in the EU said the same thing and my position was: "Give us
more money to produce more and better research." They promised to
give us some money. So far, the amount is very meager in comparison with
the money that is shoveled into conventional Institutions, but it is a
beginning.

7. My feeling is that by saying what
you say you not only isolate yourself, but also might be hurting
homeopathy.

I do not agree with your assumption.
Just to give you a few facts. When I spoke at the LIGA Medicorum
Homeopatica Internationalis in Budapest this year in May, they opened
two auditoriums of three hundred seats each for my speech. (In the one,
the participants could listen through a closed circuit TV). Both were
packed and in the auditorium in which I was speaking about fifty people
were standing and did not move a bit during my one-and-a-half-hour of
speaking. For all other speakers one auditorium was used and was never
full. You call this isolation?

When in January I gave a seminar in
India, 2,500 homeopaths were gathered from all over India in the largest
auditorium of the country. Do you call this isolation? In Germany in
1997 when I spoke at the World Congress, the auditorium was full with
1,500 homeopaths on the day I spoke. This year in Germany about two
thousand homeopaths attended my lectures. Do you call this isolation
that may hurt homeopathy?

Nonetheless, it is true that many
remain uninformed of the possibilities of homeopathy or are not
convinced about the side effects of chemical drugs. The work of
informing the public falls upon all of us in homeopathy, and I hope that
everyone will do his duty. There is no question that we still have to do
a lot of work to make the world aware of the weakness of conventional
medicine and the possibilities that homeopathy can offer to ailing
humanity. There is no question either that homeopathy soon will take the
place it deserves in the therapeutic arena. I feel that it is my duty
and the duty of my students to prepare practitioners who can absorb the
impact of such a change in medicine."